Covid! Go Away!

I am not a fan of Covid.  It keeps ruining SO many things!  First our vacations and then school.  It has made choir super hard and way more involved than it should be.  And then I got sick with covid and we had to get pretty creative with choir and daily life now that I was sick AND quarantined.  Melissa (my friend and co-director) also had covid, and a few of our students, so we ended up doing a zoom call one week and cancelling choir for Fall Break.  So we had a few weeks to get better.  I had Kristen Larsen cover my music classes for a few weeks, so I made a poster and sent it with Alivia so they could do chimes in class.  

I was so grateful for all the help our family got.  Krissy brought me Zupas the first day!  Friends brought me soup and Nick also helped supply soup from Chik-fil-a, which was so perfect for how my stomach was feeling.  Brita brought us soup and chocolate strawberries.  Bryen Hancock, Jen Cochran, Michelle DeVries, Brittany McConkie and Gracie Scholes brought us one or two dinners each.  It saved us when Nick got sick too and both of us were sick at the same time. Our poor kids have watched more tv in 2 weeks then that past 7 months!  Haha!

The one perk of Nick being home the first week I was sick, was that they got some good work done in the back yard.  I just feel bad Nick got sick!  

When Nick woke up sick on Sunday with a fever, we finally decided to get tested.  That was a JOKE! We drove down to Ogden Clinic on 12th street and waited about 45 min for both of us to finally get a rapid covid test.  It was SO painful! Then after 30 min of waiting, they came back and said they both came back invalid, so they sent in another nurse to just swab Nick because I refused to take a rapid test.  Then his test came back invalid too!  So we had to do a regular PCR test, but they were out of them and had to go get more so they sent us home and said they would call when they got them in.  We got home and had some lunch, but both felt so horrible.  Then a few hours later we went BACK to the clinic and finally got the PCR test.  We didn't get results until Tuesday, but mine came back positive and Nick was negative.  What?!?!

Here is where it gets really crazy.  So now I am positive, so I have to go 10 days from symptoms before I can not be in quarantine.  My family has to go 14 days after the end of my 10 days before they can return to normal.  (24 days total).  But, if they test positive, it is just 10 days.  I knew Nick had it so we decided Wednesday to take all the kids in to get test and Nick retested so he could go back to work sooner.  We went to the North Ogden IHC Clinic, and when we got there they told us we had to call a hotline and make an appt.   So I called the number and 90 minutes later finally got someone on the phone to help us get a test order.  They were saliva tests this time and by the next day we got results and Nick, Kaylee & Alivia were positive.  Carson and Preston were negative.  Again...so crazy.  The girls didn't even have symptoms, but at this point that meant a shorter quarantine.  I ended up taking the boys back in on Friday to retest and they were still negative.  So they were not going to be allowed back to school for another 14 days!  It was so crazy.  So we all were home for a few weeks, did school online and relived the spring quarantine.  It was a LONG few weeks, but we survived and we were so glad to slowly get back to normal.  Halloween was coming up and Alivia and Reese decided to both be these fun blow up Ostriches.  Here are a few more pictures of our few weeks of quarantine.  I didn't take a lot...since the scenery didn't change a lot.    

 

Calm before the storm....

On Sunday, October 5th, we enjoyed our traditional conference cakes!  We all love them so much!  But I wasn't feeling super great, so I took a shower and got ready for the day hoping that would perk me up.  It helped for a bit, but by that night I felt horrible and had a fever.  But we still enjoyed the day and I am glad I was able to still make conference cakes before I got sick.  

This was the highlight of the next few weeks since I ended up having Covid.  I had a fever, aches and the worst head pain in my ears for the next four days.  By Thursday, my fever broke, but then I lost my smell.  But luckily I could still taste.  I was pretty nauseous from Wednesday to Sunday and just pretty much stayed in bed the whole week.  I never had a soar throat or a cough, which I guess is supposed to be the main symptom of Covid.  On Sunday, the 11th, Nick woke up with a fever and not feeling well.  At this point, I hadn't been tested but everyone had been home from school and Nick took the week off to take care of me.  Since he was now sick and he was likely going to miss another week or two of work, we decided to get tested since the base would pay time off for having Covid and we wouldn't have to use up all his vacation time.  See the next post for the next miserable few weeks for our family!  

Choir Fun!

We had such a great experience filming our first Music Video for Vocal Motion!  We found the perfect spot at North Fork in Eden and also Pineview Res!  The kids did amazing and our videographer did an amazing job and we can't wait to see the finished product.  

We passed out shirts at our last rehearsal as well and did some more work polishing two more songs that we were taking in the recording studio.  We recorded "Last Christmas" yesterday in the studio and will be recording "Betelehemu/Drummerboy" this week during class.  We are so excited!  Choir is going really well and I am excited to see how our next videos go!  I also worked with the Baritones and taught them the chime part for Last Christmas.  It was so much fun and they caught on so fast!  

On Friday, I was able to help with Alivia's field trip for the 4th graders.  They did some fun activities including archery and tomahawk throwing!  It was so FUN!!!

Here is some pictures from our "Last Christmas" recording session.  The kids did great and Alivia got to record with the students too!  

Friends!

The kids have been riding their bikes to school a lot lately and I love it.  It gives me a little bit more of a head start to my morning when they do!  Haha!  I always feel like there is this count down clock when my kids leave for school to get as much done as I can while they are gone!  I did enjoy a yummy luncheon with friends to celebrate our cute friend Heidi, who was in town.  She moved away about a year ago and we sure miss her!  Things like that are so fun to enjoy during the day since I usually try and just work work work!  I don't have a picture, but we also got to do lunch at Cafe Rio for Stacia's birthday.  So I do get some play time in during the day! 

I got to meet up with a friend from High School to pick up some shirts and jackets we had made.  It was fun working with Jalene and catching up with her.  And the shirts and jackets turned out great!  It was fun to get them handed out to the students.  

That week we also got to spend an afternoon after school at Stacia's pool.  I sure love where we live and the friends that we have!  They are so fun! 

 

Salmon Run

We went on the prettiest hike up by Causey Reservoir.  Every year in September there is a Salmon Run where the fish go up the river.  So we decided to take the kids for a hike (along with a million other people with the same idea).  It was crazy to see the res so low, when we had just been here in June with the water way up to the top!  The weather was perfect and the kids did a great job hiking!  With the leaves changing color and the beautiful scenery, I was in constant awe of what we were seeing.  We made it to the river and saw a handful of fish, but not as many as we thought we would see.  But it was still so much fun and totally worth the hike.  We actually ran into a few of our neighbors on or way in and on our way out.  It was so awesome and makes me excited to do more hiking with our kids now that they are getting older!  

 

Tony's Grove!

After Carson's bike race at Beaver Mountain, we stopped at Tony's Grove on the way home!  I had come here several times when I was a kid and have such good memories of it.  Since we were going to be up Logan Canyon, I really wanted to take advantage of it and take our kids there.  We stopped and had a picnic and then decided to walk all the way around the lake to get back to the van.  Well, it took longer than we thought and a rainstorm blew in just as we were almost to the van and so we had to run the rest of the way to the van while it was raining and hailing!  It was pretty exciting! But we had a blast and we can't wait to go back when we have more time and warmer weather!